Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
must be scratching his head, wondering what his next move should be. On the other hand, the bully boy leadership is probably enjoying cups of green tea in a mud-house somewhere in the tribal region. The beardos can afford to relax -- after all they have just checkmated a confused and clueless politicianship while also putting to the test the political rhetoric of those who have gone hoarse lobbying for peace talks with the Pak Taliban.
The nomination of the five-member committee to represent the Tehrik-e-Taliban in talks with a four-member government-nominated team appears to be a smart political move by the TTP.
The TTP-nominated committee is representative of the school of thought which vociferously advocated peace negotiations with the Pak bully boys.
The bully boyz have nominated PTI chief Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
; Maulvi Kifayatullah, the burly, former JUI-F MPA from Mansehra
...
a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...; JUI-S leader Maulana Samiul Haq
...the
Godfather of the Taliban,leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as
Mullah Sandwichfor his habit of having two young boys at a time...
, who until recently claimed to have been tasked by the government to engage the bully boys; the Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
leader from Bannu, Professor Mohammad Ibrahim; and the famous Lal Masjid holy man, Maulana Abdul Aziz.
The TTP front man said that the banned
...the word
bannedseems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization had spoken to the individuals and had obtained their consent.
Among the bearded crowd, the clean-shaven Khan seems like the odd man out but then, perhaps more than the others, he articulated and forcefully pushed for a dialogue with the bully boys. Not just that, he ordered his party men to forcibly stop supplies for foreign forces moving through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
before entering Afghanistan. His party also staged a sit-in to protest drone strikes in our tribal regions.
So, tactically and politically speaking, the bully boyz have chosen an ideal team. The ones, who believed that peace was possible, have been given the task to make it possible.
Let bully boyz not be blamed for lack of seriousness or resolve; let their chosen few speak for them and vouch for them by engaging the official handpicked team, the majority of whose ideological bent of mind may not be different from their supposed interlocutors.
It's a win-win situation -- tail, I win, head, you lose! Like-minded people on both sides. As one commentator put it, it was a case of Liverpool playing against Liverpool.But this is not all what it is all about. The TTP has put the political parties' own rhetoric to test. Will Khan now come forward and be part of a team representing the bully boyz and risk being permanently called a Taliban Khan by his political detractors?
Even more interesting is the fact that his party's government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has endorsed and supported the official team by nominating Rustam Shah Mohmand to it. How will Mohmand -- a government interlocutor -- confront his own party leader sitting on the other side of the table?
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
Khan has made it clear he wouldn't be part of the Taliban-nominated committee. "This is beneath his stature," a party leader said.
JI's Prof Ibrahim was smart. He acknowledged having been approached. However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
he added that while he had consented to be part of the effort he would do so only as a mediator between the government and the Taliban.
Samiul Haq, who opted out, is simply miffed that Prime Minister Sharif did not return his calls. Hence, he has adopted the wait-and-see approach -- in other words he will not commit either way till the situation clears up.
Maulana Abdul Aziz too has been a bit ambivalent. He said he was willing to help as much as he can but added that till the government imposed the Sharia or appeared sincere in doing so, he would not become part of the team.
This leaves behind Maulvi Kifayatullah, who was once JUI-F's contact person with the late TTP leader, Waliur Rehman, to respond to the nomination.
But where does this leave the government's initiative? What will the prime minister do to achieve political consensus for his peace initiative? Or will he now swallow the bitter pill and do the seemingly unthinkable -- order a military operation -- now that at least four of the political parties which supported his move, have now been chosen by the bully boyz to sit on the opposite end of the table?